Netting enclosures designed to prevent ingress of flying insects, such as flies, bees or mosquitos are known in the art. For instance, netting enclosures are readily available for use with outdoor patio sets. Patio enclosures typically employ a frame unit defining the perimeter of the resultant enclosure with netting material then mounted to the frame unit to provide screened walls. The top of the frame may also include netting material or may include an opaque covering so as to provide shade or protection from the sun. The netting material constituting one wall may also include a separable seam thereby permitting entry into and/or egress from the enclosure interior. The bottom portion of the netting material forming each wall may also be fixed to the ground through a series of stakes or may include a fixed weight sewn into the netting material to prevent the walls from becoming dislocated by wind. While these enclosures may provide desired protection from flying insects, they are fixed structures requiring persons desiring such protection to remain within the stationary enclosure.
In an attempt to provide ambulatory protection, netting enclosures have also been developed for use with conventional personal umbrellas. Similar to patio enclosures described above, these umbrella enclosures are mounted onto an umbrella canopy such that netting material drapes to the ground. The netting material may include fixed weights along its bottom periphery to prevent unwanted displacement of the netting material during use. However, present umbrella-based netting disclosures suffer a number of drawbacks, such as being bulky, heavy and/or not easily deployable when needed and subject to failure of protection due to open seams within the draped netting.
As such, there is a need for a netting apparatus that is lightweight, compact, portable and easily deployable to protect the user from winged insects such as flies, bees or mosquitos. The present invention addresses these and other needs.